I’m sneaking in this message from San Francisco - there is really GOOD STUFF happening in the technology and learning difficulties area. I’ve been to sessions with people who really know their stuff and are on the cutting edge and *making* the stuff and doing the research, and a couple other sessions with ‘plain ol’ teachers,’…
I’ll put a lot more in my blog when I get the chance
http://resourceroom1.blogspot.com/ … but the Tom Snyder/Scholastic “Thinking Reader” stuff is good. I’ve also been looking at a speech recognition program that basically removes 90% of the pain of training that Dragon has because it’s designed for struggling readeres & writers, as opposed to being designed for people who already know how to write but can’t type. (So for example, it automatically reads y ou a phrase to repeat back for the training, with the words in big print in front of you, instead of giving you a whole paragraph to read on your own.)
Gotta fly…
Re: Reading Comprehension Software... yes :-)
I don’t know if it’s upgraded, but what they demonstrated could have the font adjusted and one of the supports was having the text read (by a human voice). I was impressed with the “cognitive supports” which are still not as good as live teaching & discussion, but get past the idea that you “teach” comprehension by having students read a paragraph and answer some questions about it.
Sue,
You told us a few months ago that you were going. Please let us know all the cool stuff you discovered. I presented at TRLD two years ago and wish that I submitted something this year. I’ll try for next years conference.
The problem with Thinking Reader is that it isn’t totally accessible (unless they upgraded it from about 9 months ago). It isn’t flexible to meet the needs of the visually impaired for example.
Anyway, keep us informed of what else you saw there. (And check out my blog if you want - www.teachingeverystudent.blogspot.com. Yours look good. Have you checked out Will Richardson’s at www.weblogg-ed.com? That one is very impressive! Lots of cutting edge thinking.)